Price stop at Lucky Car

Price stop at Lucky Car

Driving is becoming more and more of a luxury every year. It's not just the rising costs at the pump that are affecting people who rely on cars, unavoidable workshop visits such as the "Pickerl" check are also becoming increasingly expensive. If you went to a car mechanic ten years ago because of a problem with your car, you would pay almost 50 percent less than in 2024. From 2023 to 2024 alone, prices in local workshops rose by an average of almost 8 percent for vehicles with combustion engines, and for electric cars it was as much as 16 percent. According to a survey by the Chamber of Labor, an hour of service or repair from a car mechanic cost an average of over 170 euros last year.

Financial relief

Lucky Car, Austria's largest contract-free workshop chain with 64 locations in all nine federal states, is now reacting to this development and would like to relieve the financial burden on its customers. "Many people in Austria are dependent on a car for work or family reasons, we don't want to impose any further financial burden on them," explains Lucky Car founder and owner Ostoja "Ossi" Matic: "Our hourly rate in automotive mechanics is 139 euros - and therefore well below the Austrian average. We will keep this price the same for 2025 and not make any increases. This also applies to numerous other services in our workshops.” The prices for the §57a inspection will also remain unchanged at Lucky Car in the new year - as will the costs for windshield repairs, tire storage and other mechanical services. The only price adjustment that the workshop chain is making for 2025 mostly concerns insurance services, according to Matic: "The hourly rate for painters and plumbers has to be adjusted by almost four to five percent. However, the vast majority of these hourly rates are covered by insurance companies and not by private customers," says Matic.